Automotive vehicles having internal combustion engines are often provided with an exhaust system to expel exhaust gases at the rear of the vehicle. The exhaust system typically includes one or more conduits for porting exhaust gases from the internal combustion engine to one or more tail pipe. The exhaust system can also include after-treatment devices, such as a catalytic converter for trapping particles suspended in the exhaust gases; and one or more silencer for reducing exhaust noise. A typical exhaust system for a road vehicle is made from stainless steel, having a gauge thickness of 1.2 mm or 1.5 mm resulting in a significant mass.
In order to reduce the mass of the exhaust system, it is known to use materials other than stainless steel. For example, the exhaust system can be fabricated from titanium, but this typically requires specialised fabrication techniques and is more expensive to produce. There are additional obstacles to reducing the mass of the exhaust system. Notably, larger and more complex after-treatment devices are required to meet increasingly stringent emissions legislation. Moreover, there is an on-going desire to reduce acoustic outputs and/or to tune the acoustic outputs to refine the soundscape within the vehicle. These requirements typically result in larger and more complex exhaust systems.
It is against this backdrop that the present invention has been conceived. At least in certain embodiments, the present invention relates to an exhaust system configured to have a lower mass that prior art systems.